Rory Hangs At The Mall

Nike Golf’s Middle East lovefest gets under way at late local news time on the East Coast tonight, when BFFs and marquee Swoosh endorsers Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy tee off together in the first round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.

While Tiger has spent the run-up to the event downplaying his ugly 79 at Torrey Pines last Saturday – his closing double bogey in Tuesday’s Champions Challenge at Emirates Golf Club didn’t exactly inspire confidence in his form – Rory was the good corporate soldier, taking time away from the course to attend the grand opening of a Nike Golf retail store at a Dubai shopping mall.

According to an online report, McIlroy putted Nike’s new RZN Black ball across the shop’s threshold and signed his name in Arabic on one of the store’s walls. No word on whether the Ulsterman grabbed a slice at Sbarro afterward.